Don't You Remember?
by krystal-dolphin
Summary: What if Riku and Sora had never met? Would their feelings towards each other still be the same? Riku has no memory of his friend after some hurtful words are said. Sora x Riku.
1. A Change in the Atmosphere

It's been a long time since I published this, but I decided not to let this story slip away, as the idea is one I've always liked.  
So, I've written a second chapter, and consequently _will_ keep writing :3

I'll appreciate any feedback from readers, it always helps to know people are enjoying/hating my story!

-- KD

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**Don't You Remember?**

_Chapter One: A Change in the Atmosphere_

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Sora hummed softly as the soothing water lapped continuously over his toes, enjoying that gentle and unique feel on a particularly hot summer's evening. Oh, how he loved Destiny Islands! It was the _perfect_ place to live. He had his friends, his family, and a huge beach practically _reserved_ for him. Of course, life couldn't get any better now, could it? He had it so good that it was easy to think it wouldn't fall apart. Nothing could ever spoil it for him, not even the tiniest of things. Sora was evidently in one of his dreamlike states, marvelling at the world and wondering how he could ever have doubted it in the past, if at all.

The young boy sat lazily taking in the hot breeze while time just flew by. He didn't want to just lay about looking cosy, but he didn't want to get up either. He was stuck in a tight spot between two options. His mind was having a mental struggle making a choice. Should he get off the warm soft sand, or go and find the others for a big game of Pirates?

Mind lost in contemplation, Sora's face looked weird as it changed from one odd expression to another. His thinking set him behind, for it was already too late to decide either option. Sora felt his nose turn numb after what hit it had fallen to the ground with a soft 'thud'.

"Hey Sora, you lazy monkey!"

He didn't look up but he could already tell that it was Riku's voice. A voice so tauntingly mischievous yet hair-curlingly calm in one instance. Sora was annoyed at Riku for throwing a paopu fruit on his nose- and it seemed to have been the sharp edge that it collided with, too- but this momentary feeling of anger dissipated into something negligible as his best friend sat down beside him.

"Riku! Where have you been all day?" he asked, curious. His curiosity was justified, seeing as usually the two boys would have rendezvoused with one another the moment dawn cracked.

Even though they were sitting, Sora still had to look up to Riku to face him. Sora hated this, it made him feel tiny and insignificant compared to Riku's formidable form-- because however much he thought he'd grown, he never seemed to surpass Riku's height. It was yet another competition between the two, adding to too many unnamed but undoubtedly existent.

Riku shrugged at Sora's question, not entirely remembering his previous events. "Well, I remember walking round the market, then after that I went looking for you. Can't remember the rest." He said, inserting one hand into and eagerly ruffling Sora's mane of brown locks.

"Sora! Sora!"

Riku aptly retracted his hand and the two of them spun their heads around and met the doting figure of Kairi. She was waving her hand vigorously in the air more towards Sora while gradually nearing them. Kairi was a bright girl, with a very sunny disposition.

"Hello, Sora! I've been looking everywhere for you today!" she stated in confusion, as she was always seen either with him alone or when Sora was with Riku, but that quickly changed into joy. Kairi smiled and Sora smiled back at her, no aware of holding in his hand the Paopu he had picked up off the ground from before. "Oh, Sora, where did you get that Paopu?" she gasped as the brown-haired young girl spotted the star shaped object in Sora's hand.

"Oh! It's... a Paopu." Sora said, stating the obvious and slightly hesitating. It was as if he'd just realised he had a Paopu in his hand, which wasn't completely untrue. He felt a blush coming on. Sure, he had a crush on Kairi, he knew it himself fully well and normally held that feeling under impenetrable control, but somehow the sudden concept of sharing a Paopu with her in his mind got him so embarrassed. "It was on the floor."

Kairi beamed at Sora and in her head, little images of butterflies and sharing the Paopu with Sora popped up. She knew that there was a legend: whoever you shared the Paopu with, your destiny, and their destiny would bind together forever. She continued to beam at him, awaiting his next words, while Sora, having just stood, was feeling uneasy.

All the while, the one person, at the first hint of being ignored, had already left. Riku had decided to leave the moment that Sora commented that the Paopu was on the floor. _It wasn't on the floor!_ Well, it was only on the floor because Riku threw it at him! Today had been the day when Riku was going to ask Sora to share the Paopu with him, going to finally instigate some progress with the younger boy. His plan had failed the minute a certain girl entered the scene. Riku cursed the situation, asking himself why something always interrupted when he managed to get Sora alone.

He wasn't afraid or anything, he would gladly tell Sora that he loved him, but if _only_ he had two minutes in between one interruption and the other! Sometimes Riku wondered if Fate was against him or something, if it was never meant to be, but that in no way stopped him from trying once and again. He was adamant on at least letting Sora _know_.

Riku was now at the other side of the beach, the part with the coconut trees and the boulder covering the cave. Kicking the sand beneath his feet, Riku could feel the sun on his back and the heat was slowly dehydrating him. He was too far from home right now to fetch a drink, so he decided to go for the next best thing, and dive into the sea for a cooling, and undeniably tension-relieving swim.

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Kairi clung onto Sora's shirt as she waited for him to cut up the Paopu. They were back in Sora's house, above the beach, after Kairi implied with obvious hints that she wanted to share the Paopu with him. Sora was overall very happy about this but there was a part of him that protested against his every, aching, action. The Paopu was- albeit _thrown_- from Riku; sharing it with Kairi seemed wrong. There was probably no emotional attachments when Riku had passed it onto him but yet, if he was to ever share a Paopu with _anyone_, let alone Kairi, he'd never want someone else to harvest it for him. Sora's inbuilt heroic instincts stated that it was tradition for Paopu lovers to have a hand in the picking of the fruit. Sora blushed to himself at this thought. _It's more romantic_, he assured himself.

"Kairi, I really don't want to eat this Paopu..."

The girl looked up with incredulous blue eyes and narrowed them at the sheepish-looking Sora. "You.. don't?" she asked, with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

Sora's body screamed at him. _Say you do!_ If he said he wanted to share it with her, then they could finally be together!

"I don't."

Sora mentally kicked himself for upsetting Kairi, for now her eyes were hidden and she was bidding farewell. "I really have to get back to dinner, Sora." she said darkly, having told such an obvious lie.

Before Sora could say or do anything to stop her, Kairi had already made her way out of the kitchen and out of the front door.

Rats, why did he have to be so stupid! Why couldn't he just ignore his foolish pride and give in to Kairi? _No, he didn't like the thought of merely 'giving in'_. But this was Kairi! He simply _worshipped_ her!

All of a sudden feeling very vexed and with a gallant change of heart, Sora followed Kairi's previous path and planned to scour after her.

Riku hastily removed his soaking shirt as he got out of the water. Who knew that it would be so cold, when everywhere else was so hot? He'd been putting up with the cold water for about ten minutes before he realised that staying any longer could land him with illness. Forcefully wringing the shirt, he was too busy to notice that a certain brunette was approaching from around the tall cliff.

The sun was setting now, marking the end of another useless day. Riku was preoccupied with watching the sunset until he was snapped back to reality by bumping into something, or rather, someone. It seemed that the other person hadn't been watching where they were going either.

"Woah, hey, Sora." Riku greeted warmly as he identified this as another chance to make some sort of move- anything. "Sorry I wandered off earlier, had to--" Riku stopped when he saw the frown on Sora's face. "What's wrong?"

Sora rolled his eyes and placed them onto the ground. He was very annoyed with Riku for some unknown reason. The best he could work out was that his guilt over Riku had stopped him from sharing the Paopu fruit with Kairi. As if that wasn't enough, Riku was now standing before him dripping wet in a situation that Sora regarded as highly serious.

"Nothing's wrong." Sora mumbled, watching a bead of water roll down Riku's abdomen, clearly showing even more signs of impatience.

Riku just sighed. Now or never was the time to do it, right? Sora was showing signs of a short temper, but when would he again get a chance like this? He drew in a deep breath and began to speak.

"Sora, can we talk alone for a second?"

Sora furrowed his brows in confusion and looked at Riku. "We already are." he tartly said, with a tone of increasing annoyance. What had gotten into Riku? He was making him go mad! These stupid things just had to come along right in the middle of more important things, didn't they?

"No, I meant that if anyone... forget it. I just really need to tell you that..."

Sora bore his eyes cruelly into Riku's, putting the poor boy right on the spot, which said a bunch. Riku was never just a _poor boy on the spot_. He was trying as hard as he could to put his feelings into appropriate words. When he found that he couldn't find any decent way, the image of Kairi giggling was all it took to fuel a totally different feeling, devoid of any real direction and inevitably ruining what could have been a purely calm conversation.

"You've been spending so much time with Kairi, it's like I don't even exist anymore!"

Riku inwardly gasped at his extremely sudden anger-motivated words, which was physically symbolised by the contracting of his stomach muscles, and his breath froze while awaiting a response from Sora. What was done couldn't be reversed; he just hoped Sora didn't hate him for it...

"Shut up!"

Riku inwardly gasped again, but this time with total offence. He'd never expected Sora to say this!

"No!" Riku barked back. "I won't! Sora, I know you have a crush on her, but you've totally thrown me away!" Now, it seemed, Riku's words did possess an ounce of substance to them, but nevertheless, he was going about it the wrong way.

Sora's frown turned into a glare and he was aiming it at Riku. "You're so jealous, Riku! Why don't you admit it, you're jealous that Kairi likes me, and not you! You've always been jealous, how can you even call yourself my friend? You can't bear to see me happy, can you?"

Fingers clenched into fists as Riku lowered his head. He was trembling slightly and Sora's words had shaken him to a great deal. How _dare_ Sora accuse him of being jealous? How _dare_ Sora dismiss him as a best friend, when all that he ever wanted was to see the other boy smiling? How could he have got it all _so_ wrong?

Riku's breathing intensified as the water in the sea trembled along with his every short-lived breath. The situation came to a darker turn as dark grey, nearly black; clouds stormed overhead and leaked little droplets of rain onto the ground, and fusing with the drops of water on Riku's still-bare midriff.

Sora noticed the change in weather and his live wire was temporarily annulled. He looked up into the sky with large, questioning eyes, but was brought once again to reality by the sound of Riku.

"Don't you know, Sora?"

Unlike it should have seemed, Riku didn't look angry. Instead, he had a peculiar expression on his face, that between calm and menacing. He released a slight chuckle as he faced the sky where Sora's eyes had previously searched.

"Know what?" Sora impatiently asked.

"That I'm really, really jealous? That I just love Kairi and that all I plan to do is to make your life a living hell?"

Sora gasped with disgust and in a fit of rage punched his thighs. "I hate you, Riku! Hate, you!"

Of course he had known Riku was merely mocking him, teasing him, but he didn't care. He wanted to take out all of his anger, every single atom of it, on Riku. Sora didn't know what possessed him to do what he did next, but he sure felt better afterwards.

The Paopu hitting his nose; the look of hurt on Kairi's face; the terrifying smirk on the silver-haired boy; all the times he'd fallen; every time he'd been picked on; every time his mother had scolded him; every moment he'd felt hurt, was channelled into one single sentence.

"Riku, you're the worst thing that's ever happened! I HATE you and I wish we'd never met!"

A crash of lightning added effect to these words like nothing else ever could. After screaming them at the loudest his lungs could allow, Sora clenched his teeth, growling madly as he scurried back to his home, leaving his once closest of friends standing in the rain, his silent tears melding with the angry drops of the Heavens; his black mood standing out, if it were possible, distinctly against the ebony sky.

-  
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Sora woke, feeling the worse that he had ever felt since he could remember. His thighs were painfully throbbing where he had punched them, his eyes were sore from the heavy raindrops beating on them, and his head was in a non-stop spin. What was the last thing that had happened? He couldn't remember exactly right now, but he knew that first things first- he needed to get some water down if he didn't want to slip into unconsciousness again.

Sora was just about to get off his bed when he moved and hit something hard. What had happened? Since when had there been a rock where the pillow was?

But then the fact hit Sora that he wasn't in his bed; he wasn't even in his house. Sora was lying on wet sand outdoors. _Great_, he thought, _what a way to wake up_.

Summoning all his strength, Sora pushed himself off the sand and saw that he'd made an imprint of his body. Unfortunately, Sora wasn't in the mood to speculate at it, or even call Riku over to see his creation.

Riku.

Sora gasped, or managed what was supposed to be a gasp, out loud as the revelation smacked his head like a blind bird. He was so stupid, why did he let loose on his friend like that? Thinking about it now, Sora couldn't even recall why he was so angry. Something about Kairi…

The thought of getting water fled from Sora's mind as a new one entered- find Riku now and apologise like crazy.

The early morning market was as always swarming with bright and cheerful dawn risers. From numerous clocks and sundials about the market, Sora made out that it was briefly six: way too early to even dream about waking up. What caused him to run straight to the marketplace, Sora couldn't understand. But the metropolis of people somehow rang a bell in Sora's head. He remembered hearing something about it from Riku, and so this was the most likely place to find him?

Sora brushed his puzzled thoughts aside and wandered about. He was walking around for so long that the buzz of people slowly died down and all that was left was a bunch of stock being prepared for the next sale at around lunch time.

He really wanted to slump onto the floor and whine, but after many thoughts about it, Sora decided that it probably wasn't the most sensible thing to do. It wasn't like there wasn't any hope left; Riku had a house that he might by a small chance live in!

And so he set off to call his friend, whom he hoped to God wasn't angry with him. But when he hadn't even taken a few steps, his stomach doubled over inside him as he realised he was really thirsty.

"Sora?"

The brunet looked up, a familiar feeling in his craning neck. His eyes trailed up the thin legs of the girl he recognised as Kairi.

"Kairi…" he whined slowly. "I need water, please. I'm so thirsty."

How extraordinarily embarrassing this was for him, pleading for water at the feet of the princess he was supposed to pursue. He felt a rising level of shame as this was not at all what he imagined heroism to depict.

"Of course, Sora!" she cried, alarmed, supposedly only have found her feet because soon she was kneeling by his side pouring water from her leather gourd into his mouth. After hydrating her friend, Kairi proclaimed, "Well, I don't mean to be rude, Sora, but I should be going."

"Huh, where are you going?" Sora asked, confused. Why on Earth would Kairi leave him all of a sudden like that—?

Oh, no. The Paopu fruit! Why was everything ruined like this?

"Well, I _was_ heading over to Riku's before I saw you, y'know. And-" Kairi paused when she saw the stunned look on Sora's face. "Oh, silly me, I forgot you don't know him. Well, anyway we're preparing for my birthday party, but didn't you know about that already? I had to go to the market-"

Wait a minute, what did Kairi mean he didn't know Riku? Sora thought to himself, all previous fears of Kairi loathing him now pushed to the back of his mind. And then the worse dawned on him, as it seemed to be doing a lot today- what if Riku had told Kairi of their 'incident' the day before? What if Kairi thought less of Sora now that she knew what kind of a friend _he_ was? Sora wouldn't have put it past her.

"-say, it wouldn't be such a bad idea if you came with me, it's a perfect opportunity for you to meet Riku, you two would get along great, I can feel it! Sora?"

"Err…yeah, sure…" was the only answer he could utter beside his astonishment. He hadn't actually been listening to Kairi; otherwise he wouldn't have missed the part where Kairi acted as if she genuinely thought he didn't know Riku.

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Riku sang a song in his head as he dusted off the rugs in his house. Having a birthday party for Kairi was tiring to say the very _least_. For one, it was extremely difficult to find decorations that would portray her zest for life on the island, where the only type of décor material available were coconut skin in various dyes. But it would have to do; at least Riku knew how to use his hands and had a brilliant eye for colour.

And it was always worth it because he loved her; Kairi was his first and only girlfriend. Ever since she'd walked into his life at the age of nine, Riku had developed feelings towards her. At first, he wasn't sure whether they were caring feelings similar to those of a brother, but since Kairi was practically the only girl on the island, Riku had a hard time identifying his confused feelings. He had never really had feelings towards anyone else, besides those of friendship towards people like Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie.

Even though Riku was entirely content with his life, he couldn't help but wonder if there was ever any more to it. He'd occasionally question why he'd been put in this world, and how many other worlds with totally different people were out there? He'd often get into a private daze where his thoughts would roam his surroundings freely. He loved those little moments but found they were rare due to the confinement of Destiny Islands and everyone's expectations of him to be the island's support beam. It was true, people lived to depend on his strong character and skills and he felt privileged, but surely, there must have been someone out there who would need him for him alone? At times it seemed that even Kairi was one of 'them'. One of the people that expected him to do everything...

"Riku!"

The young man was snapped from one of his valuable reveries as a boyish voice called him from below the balcony. "Riku, it's me, Sora! Let me in!"

Suspiciously, Riku placed down the rug and made his way all the way down to the front door, where Sora awaited him.

"Yeah?" Riku asked dully, wondering why he was being approached on such a day. What did they need now, the roof fell in somewhere? He didn't even _know_ the boy standing in front of him.

Sora sighed at Riku's words, mistaking them for ones concocted from bitterness. "Riku, I'm sorry." Sora murmured. "I'm so sorry for saying all those mean things to you; I didn't mean any of them."

Sora waited for a reply, looking at Riku's face remorsefully, watching Riku's turquoise eyes dart from Sora's face to his hair and then back to his face again, but there was none, until-

"What are you talking about?"

Sora's shoulders dropped in disheartenment. Was Riku just playing a joke on him by pretending not to know? Or maybe Riku had forgiven him and was indeed trying to act as if it'd never happened! Sora would have given the world for the latter to be true, but no matter how much he hoped, there was a nasty tugging at the bottom of this stomach which told him something was not as it should be. "Riku, I'll do whatever it takes for you not to be mad at me anymore." he sighed, staring into the other boy's eyes.

"I'm not mad at you." were the only words from Riku. "I don't even _know_ you."

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	2. Silver Scales and Blue Eyes

A/N: Thank you for the reviews!  
I rewrote the second chapter because the first draft was derogative and unprogressable. Enjoy :3

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**Don't You Remember?**

_Chapter Two: Silver Scales and Blue Eyes_

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"Riku this is not a joke anymore!" Sora screamed at the other boy in disbelief. Obviously they were both feeling as confused as each other, judging by the expression on their faces, and Riku's impeding desire to shut the door.

"Whoever said it was?" he replied apathetically in that calm yet unnerving voice of his. "Now if you don't mind, whoever you are, I'm going." he ended, disappearing behind the entrance to his home.

Did Riku just shut the door in his face? Sora thought incredulously. He could have screamed the island down at that moment; he was so frustrated with the way the other boy was acting, his fault or not. If that's how it was going to be then fine! Riku had another think coming if he thought Sora was going to ever forgive him for this.

Turning on his heel, the brunet set off in the opposite direction of the house, going home for some breakfast and hopefully after that finding some new and _better_ friends to play with. _I don't care about you anyway,_ Sora said to himself, trying to pull himself away from the troubling sensation at the back of his stomach.

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As if he hadn't already had it bad enough with the party preparations and trying to get the banners to stay upon the canopy, the phone was ringing virtually off its hook as well, causing Riku to have a pseudo-haemorrhage of the brain on that sunny afternoon. Descending from his wooden ladder he scooted over to pick it up. It was Kairi, and she needed to be picked up from the small island off Destiny Island, where she'd sailed out to and lost her boat. _Great!_ thought Riku, _I'm trying to organise a party for somebody who's now stuck at sea!_ Sometimes he felt way too grown up for the people around him.

"Okay, stay." he said to the banner as he finished gluing it to the pole on his balcony. "Good boy." Luckily no one was listening; otherwise they might have discovered he talked to inanimate objects sometimes. Riku chuckled at himself. Sometimes people took him much more seriously than he took himself. Call it the metal solid hair, or the conniving eyes, whatever it was, there was something that must have scared others into half of what they usually were when they were around him.

It wasn't a great feeling, especially in times of need and sadness, but it was innate, and he'd have to accept it, just as Tidus had to accept being good-looking and Wakka being a clown. Something tugged at his heart- the nagging feeling that one of his friends had to be a cry-baby, but nothing came to mind. As far as he could remember, they were a strong bunch; even Selphie, who he'd only seen cry once, which was far from enough to deem her a cry-baby.

He quickly brushed off the feeling, pulling on a shirt and purposely leaving the buttons undone. He rushed into the kitchen and poured himself some cereal, then proceeding to devour his makeshift breakfast, which had been happening more and more lately.

A good ten minutes later, Riku ran out of his house and down the steps, towards the direction of his little sail boat, brief thoughts of the strange boy from earlier on flashing through his mind.

It was a further ten minutes before Riku reached his boat, which he'd named _Durendal_. Relieving the rope from its docking pole, he managed to ease the boat a little into the sea whilst gaining enough momentum for it to go a distance before he actually needed to do any rowing.

Finally on the boat, and realising that he now needed the oar, Riku leaned down and picked it up, but accidentally dropping his phone into the sea with a 'sploosh' in the process.

"Damn!" he swore. This day wasn't exactly getting any better, he thought, annoyed at the series of events that had occurred up until now. First there was the market, which had ran out of lychees, then there was that weird stranger at his door, and now Kairi's dilemma, which out of all of them was the worst one, because it caused him to lose his phone too. There were pictures on there from the last two years! He did save some onto his laptop, but the majority had been doomed to the depths of Davy Jones' locker. _Never mind_, he told himself, _no use crying about it._ Having thought that, he laughed at the fact that perhaps _he_ was the groups' cry-baby jokingly.

"There you are, Riku!" Kairi screeched as he neared the island about twenty minutes later.

"Yes, I'm here." he said in a mock-cynical tone. Maybe he hadn't gotten over his lost phone as much as he liked to have had, which brought about a very subtle but noticeable snare on his face. Nevertheless, the sight of his girlfriend cheered him up some, and he pulled her in for a hug. "Happy birthday sweetheart." he said to her with a small kiss to the cheek.

Kairi wasn't happy with only that, and pulled in him for a big kiss on the lips, which caught him off guard.

"Hey! You didn't entice me here for making out, did you?" he joked, laughing. Kairi reacted to this but soon realised he wasn't serious. The truth was she _had_ led him out here on purpose, explaining the panic she felt at his suggestion. She'd used one of her smaller sailboats, knowing well that it would drift away under the small island's currents. Luckily, it wasn't entirely a waste of material, seeing as the boat was only big enough for one person and usually took about five hours to make out of palm bark.

As it was her seventeenth birthday, Kairi decided that she was now older and wanted more 'grown up' things. Riku had always acted older than any of her other friends and she couldn't think of a better way than to take things a little further with her boyfriend for a birthday present. And now that they were here in this secluded little island off the mainland, they had the perfect opportunity to really get into it.

"Well..." started Kairi, doing her best imitation of a seductive look, and gazing deep into Riku's pools of cerulean."I was thinking- we've known each other for a long time, right?" she continued with an accompanying graze of Riku's legs with her hand. She stroked his knee up and down, venturing further upwards with every turn. Their position on the ground made it easier for her to do so and harder for Riku to step away.

Uh-oh, RIku had a feeling where this was going. And to be honest he wasn't in any way ready for it. What he thought was a rescue mission was slowly becoming a sexual hijacking. This wasn't what he expected at all! And from Kairi? That made it even worse! Since when did innocent little Kairi become such a Lolita? She usually was the first to draw back when they kissed, so how could she have mustered this much bravery for this? And besides, they couldn't do it; they hadn't even shared a paopu fruit yet!

-  
o  
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Sora bit grumpily into his melon, crushing every mouthful between his teeth as if they were the cause of his rage. He wasn't usually a person to hold a grudge, but enough was enough when it came to it. Riku apparently didn't know when or how to stop, and that wasn't his problem.

So why was he still so anger-ridden?

"Argh!" he yelled, banging his fists on the table. Boy, he could sure use a punch bag right now. Gulping down the last bite of melon with some milk, what he got instead was a prompt knock on the door.

It was Tidus, and he was standing there soaked in mud and sand. How typical, Sora thought, the sight of the messy boy doing everything but wonders for his mood.

"I'm not really in the mood right now, Tidus." he growled, glaring at the blond in a way which said 'This better be good'.

"Huh?" proclaimed Tidus, oblivious to any sort of tension there was between them. "Me and Selphie and Wakka are looking for rocks down by the ditches... we're making a necklace for Kairi's birthday. Ya comin'?"

Actually, he had had a much better present but a series of unfortunate events had somehow changed that. The day before he'd spent ages carving her name into a stone which looked a lot like sapphire. The original plan was to gift it to her after sharing the paopu fruit, but that was blown to bits now, seeing as how Kairi pretended nothing happened between them earlier on in the market, not to mention the foul mood that that stupid RIku had invoked on him. _I've blown my only chance with Kairi, _he thought, his mind sinking into a pit of darkness.

"Hey! I said ya comin'?" Tidus repeated, rather naively and poking Sora's head which was collapsed on the table. He was never one to take a hint, persisting until told in Layman's terms what otherwise actions would have portrayed. Tidus was sure going to have a hard time growing up; he was a prime example of why Riku felt so mature on the island. Even at sixteen, the three of them- Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus- seemed to be stuck at a perpetual age of ten. At times it was refreshing to be around such pure and unassuming characters. Most of the time however, it did Sora's head in.

"Garhhrh" Sora moaned, his face buried in the old wood of the table. Finally he sighed, "Sure."

If it's anything he needed right now it was for his mind to be taken off any thought of _Kairi _or _Riku_, he decided, setting off with Tidus in search of who knows what.

-  
o  
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No, this was all wrong, he thought, trying to make sense of the situation. "Listen, Kairi, don't you think you're being a little- you know- hasty?" he muttered nearly incoherently, trying to preserve his decency against the grain of Kairi's intrusive behaviour. Her hands were wandering just a little too far for his liking.

Suddenly, she stopped. "What do you mean, Riku?" she asked, curiosity evident in her eyes, partnered with a trace of irritation. "I thought this was what you wanted?"

Discomfort and unease were tied in appearance on Riku's face, who longed to be void of this situation right now. He tried to explain to Kairi what he meant without hurting her feelings.

"What I mean is, I'm sure this isn't what _you_ really want." he prophesised, trying not to lose eye contact with Kairi, because it would have made it easier for her to impose on him. Whenever Riku wanted to stop someone dead in their tracks he'd always cleverly and successfully made eye contact with them. It was a sure-fire way to win in the art of intimidation.

"How do you know what I want, Riku? I'm not a kid" she replied, a tone of hurt in her voice which Riku had been afraid would surface. She'd instantly taken his words the wrong way, just as he'd feared, and- on a deeper level which he didn't want to admit- expected.

"I don't want you to get hurt, Kairi." he sighed, now no longer in eye contact with her. She'd blinked and looked away, concentrating on something far off in the distance. "Kairi, listen to me." he pleaded, hoping that she'd bring her eyes back to him. "I just think that it's better to wait for these kinds of things, do you understand?" he asked softly, making his best effort to reassure Kairi and assert himself at the same time. "If it was my birthday, I'd want to spend it having the best time with my friends, don't you agree?" he continued, trying a different approach now. Maybe if he explained to her what _he'd_ do in any given situation she'd be more likely to see his side of things.

Riku let go of the huge breath he'd been holding when Kairi cracked a smile in his favour. He'd done it again- he'd cheered her up; something that wasn't always easy.

"I guess you're right, Riku." she chuckled, pulling her legs towards her body. "Maybe I did rush things a little. I mean," she paused, looking into her lover's eyes, "You'll always be around, won't you?"

Right, thought Riku, of course he was going to be. The two of them had been together for almost ten years, they'd grown up together, and they'd done everything together from childhood. Kairi was mistaken if she ever thought he'd leave her or betray her. He was surprised she hadn't realised it sooner, but hey, life was about learning, he'd always told others.

"Say, I hear there's a paopu tree on this island, Kairi..." he finally broke the silence, his words stirring up a quiet frenzy of excitement in his female counterpart.

-  
o  
-

Sora's dark mood was slowly beginning to brighten as the rush of escaping the lapping waves made him forget about previous events.

He'd spotted a shining golden pebble embedded in the sand about twenty feet away from where the water met the shore, and his natural curiosity had just propelled him to go on a quest to obtain it. Currently the waves were quite strong, and a slight trip could have resulted in being swept farther out to sea than he bargained for. Not that it particularly bothered Sora because he was such a strong swimmer. Back when they were younger Sora prided himself on it being one of the few things he could beat Riku at, if only barely.

Sora reprimanded himself- there he was again, thinking about someone he swore he wouldn't!

Deciding to stay true to himself, the brunet brushed aside the thoughts as he made the umpteenth attempt to conquer the shiny pebble. It was really very close now! Just a little further--

"Gotcha!" he half-declared, half-wailed as he fell into the pending wave. From beneath the water he made sight of all the little fishes swimming back and forth in their schools, with the occasional baby fish wandering from the rest of them. He saw a fish which he thought was the coolest one he'd ever seen just a week ago in the exact same spot. It had silver scales and blue eyes, and swam so close to him yet made no attempt to get away just as the other fish usually did.

Before he knew it, it was getting darker, and there was no sign of the other three around, although Sora thought he'd spotted a flash of yellow near the beach hut, which of course had to be Selphie. This at least reassured him that that hadn't run off, which as he thought about it, wouldn't have been that bad taking in his wish to be alone nearing the end of the day. No doubt they were getting ready for Kairi's birthday right about now, something which Sora just didn't see himself as part of anymore.

The eighteen year old waded further out into the sea, the waves considerably less forceful now by the light of late afternoon.

He jolted upwards from his backstroke position as his head hit something hard and hollow. It made a 'plunk' noise so it couldn't have been any rock. Treading water on the spot, Sora's eyes widened as he recognised the object.

"Kairi's sailboat!" he gasped, panic stricken on his face like a well-fitted mask. Immediately he dove underwater in order to find his friend, fearing that she may have well been past resuscitation by now. Unsuccessful, Sora surfaced and clung onto the little vessel. It looked intact and peaceful, unlike something which would have been ravaged by the waves. Was it even likely that she fell off board? Plus, he rationed, Kairi could swim, so why was this here?

There was only one other explanation for it, which Sora desperately hoped was true, because it would have meant that Kairi was safe. Feelings of a heroic nature rose in him, reliving experiences of the previous day. He mounted the boat, and set off in the direction of the petite island a few kilometres away.

-  
o  
-

Riku wasn't a hundred percent sure about this, but it was about the only thing that seemed to make sense today.

Sharing a paopu fruit with Kairi was the logical and sensible thing to do if they wanted to advance their relationship further like she had expressed. He couldn't just jump into making love to her-- that was an experience which had a sense of ultimacy, which he didn't want to encounter _just_ yet. Riku had no idea how his girlfriend had deducted that his desire was to jump into bed with her. Had she been talking to the other kids again? They often liked to make up stories and jeer her on, knowing for a fact how gullible and immature she was as well as how much she liked to pretend that that wasn't the case.

It was at times like these that Riku most strongly questioned the world he lived in. Not being able to tell between what he wanted and what others _thought _he wanted was an extremely difficult predicament that he had to train himself to overcome. Not yet had he met a person with the same philosophy as him, and on Destiny Island, where the population hardly reached 600, that was a difficult cross to bear.

Suddenly memories of putting up party balloons and marquees for Kairi seemed so far away from his current train of thought, as though they had all occurred in some parallel universe, not this one.

"Here, I found one! I was lying on the floor so I could reach it easily!" giggled Kairi, running towards him energetically, paopu fruit in hand and smile on face. "This is so exciting!" she yapped, obviously having banished her previous insecurities from being pushed away by Riku.

He looked at the paopu, raising an eyebrow. "So, you didn't get it from the tree?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Not exactly, what does it matter?" she questioned back.

Nothing really _mattered_ at all-- apart from the fact that Kairi had picked up a random paopu fruit from the ground and wanted to share it with him, of course. He didn't mean to be overly fussy or anything, but, what good was a paopu fruit that had already been plucked and thrown to the ground? It was general knowledge that these fruit didn't easily fall from their tree; they had to be handpicked. And well, Riku had always imagined one of them ascending great heights for the literal fruit of their love.

It was all so _awkward_, Riku thought to himself. A part of him wished it wasn't happening, not because it was with Kairi, but because... it was just so imperfect and rough. Actually, he corrected himself, it wasn't that either. There was just something about it that he couldn't quite place his finger on.

"_So?_" interrupted Kairi, demolishing his derivative reverie. "You open it, you're the guy." she giggled, looking at him with those big green eyes of hers.

Riku smiled wryly, his eyes cast downwards. _Well, here goes._ It was now or never, so he might as well have started now, right?

Unless--

"Kairi? Riku?"

They both shot around to see who'd interrupted their privacy, the paopu dropping from the silver-haired boy's hand to the ground with a hard 'thud'.

For Kairi, it was none other than that jerk Sora who was always hanging around.

But for Riku-- he was a godsend.

* * *


End file.
